Tag: World Grand Prix

(Ray Sefo [left] does his best to stay upright against Badr Hari. Photo courtesy of k-1.co.jp.)

His chin might be made of titanium, but Mark Hunt’s torso proved to be merely flesh and bone last night at the K-1 World Grand Prix in Yokohama, as Semmy Schilt defended his K-1 super-heavyweight title against Hunt with a fight-ending spinning back kick to the body. Schilt — who at 6’11″ had a 13-inch height advantage over the New Zealander — controlled much of the first round with leg kicks. In the final seconds of the round, he threw the reverse kick that sent Hunt to the canvas in visible agony. “I felt like I’d been kicked by a horse,” Hunt said later. “I only started getting my air back when I heard the ring announcer call the number ‘eight’.” It was Hunt’s first K-1 appearance since his decision win over Gary Goodridge at the 2003 K-1 World GP in Las Vegas (5/2/03), after which he transitioned to MMA and built a 5-3 record in PRIDE.

In the night’s other highly anticipated matchup, defending heavyweight champion Badr Hari dispatched Ray Sefo in even more dominant fashion, knocking down Sugarfoot twice in the first round before a final barrage against the ropes forced the ref to step in and stop the fight. Videos of the Schilt/Hunt and Hari/Sefo fights are below (props: BloodyElbow), and full results of the evening’s action are after the jump.

The morning after he wagered his hopes on the Indian Casino Roulette Wheel of Fate — and lost — Chris Horodecki sat silently in the center of the Octogon, drinking from a gallon of water and trying to avoid the glances of the patrons around him, some who recognized him as the formerly undefeated IFL lightweight star, some who were just wondering what in hell happened to that boy’s eye?The Octogon, in this case, was the name of the restaurant connected to the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa in Groton, CT, where most of the fighters slept after competing in the World Grand Prix at the Mohegan Sun Arena, a much flashier joint 20 minutes away. The restaurant’s name was more than a little ironic. On a night when most fight fans were focused on UFC 79’s marquee matchups, and most other sports fans were glued to the Pats/Giants NFL simulcast, the IFL’s hungry, scrappy fighters were doing their best to carve out their own place in the MMA universe. And even in their own budget-friendly, off-the-strip hotel, they couldn’t escape the ubiquity of the Eight-Sided-Shape.

Not to say that the Mystic Marriott wasn’t welcoming. There were a couple of signs in the lobby plugging the event. Unfortunately, they were a bit outdated:

Shad Lierley, of course, was Horodecki’s second scheduled opponent for the championship match-up, after Waggney Fabiano dropped to featherweight, before Lierley was injured and replaced by John Gunderson, and before Gunderson himself was injured and replaced by Ryan Schultz, who nobody was giving a chance to win the fight. I imagine Horodecki walking past the sign on the way to breakfast the morning after and cursing those motherfuckers who couldn’t stay healthy. Because only a true underdog like Schultz could have come away with the kind of fluke victory he had last night. That’s the way life works. You cover all your bets, and the ball lands on green double-zero. Chaos rules.

It looks like I’ve been hooked up with a ticket and a Mohegan Sun hotel room for the IFL’s World Grand Prix, which means I’ll be heading out to Connecticut tomorrow to see what kinda trouble I can get into, journalistically speaking. I’ll be playing it fast and loose, but you never know what my hungry camera-lens and thirsty dictaphone might uncover. Full reports to come this weekend, whenever I can make it to my laptop. For you poor, sad, home viewers, the action starts at 9:30 p.m. ET on HDNet. Watch it! (Or at the very least, DVR it.)

As for UFC 79, my associate Kipp will be liveblogging it tomorrow night, so be sure to have your computer tuned to CagePotato.com during the fights so you can see his witty comments about the things you’ve just watched. And then of course there’s “Fedor Returns” on Monday morning, which I’ll be liveblogging myself. (Jesus, we have our work cut out for us.)

But the most important business at hand is tomorrow night’s IFL blowout, which closes the year out in style as the league looks ahead to switch their shit up in ’08. Five titles are on the line, including the IFL’s newly minted Featherweight belt. Let’s take a look at the matchups, shall we?